A 25-story West Los Angeles high-rise where an 11th-floor fire erupted Friday is not equipped with a sprinkler system, fire officials said. The blaze broke out about 11:45 a.m. on the 11 th floor of the 52-year-old Barrington Plaza apartments in the 11700 block of Wilshire Boulevard. Within minutes, huge plumes of black smoke were billowing out of several building windows and flames began to climb up the exterior. Three balconies above the blaze were scorched black from the fire.

With a flurry of late season snow, the sale of snow sports equipment and clothing rebounded slightly last winter compared with the abysmal season the previous year. The sale of ski and snowboarding equipment and clothing reached $3.4 billion in the 2012-13 season, up 3% compared with the previous season, according to the latest report from the SnowSports Industry Assn., a trade group for ski, snowboard and apparel retailers and manufacturers. The numbers represent a slight improvement from the 2011-12 season when participation in snow sports dropped 6% over the previous year because of extremely limited snowfall.

Since joining the Los Angeles Police Commission last month, Steve Soboroff has been making calls to some of the city's deepest pockets, asking them to pony up the $1 million he says he needs to jump-start an ambitious project: outfitting LAPD officers with small video cameras that would record their encounters with people. His unorthodox approach to fundraising for the Los Angeles Police Department has paid dividends and got its latest boost Tuesday when the Dodgers and members of the team's ownership group announced a $250,000 donation to the effort.

There are two dozen rules posted at the entrance to the new Dr. Joe Cortese Dog Park in San Juan Capistrano - no treats, no children's toys and no spectators. And, as some city officials just learned, no flip-flops. "I wouldn't think twice about going into the dog park in my flip-flops," said Jenny Friess, vice chairwoman of the city's parks commission, who said she was unaware of the footwear prohibition until recently. "I don't think we need to really be telling people what to wear on their feet.

"Richard II," Shakespeare's history play about the fate of a king who talks a better game than he delivers, is given an entrancing stripped-down production at the Theatre @ Boston Court. Jessica Kubzansky, the theater's co-artistic director, has adapted and directed what she's calling "R II," a deft distillation of the drama that begins after Richard has been taken prisoner. Performed by an adroit cast of three, Kubzansky's version proceeds in flashbacks that are staged with laser-like precision, each scene offering another angle on this political object lesson.

While rising to chief technology officer for Magellan Navigation in the 1990s, Anatole Lokshin pioneered the use of the global positioning system in everyday life, bringing the satellite-based technology to boats, cars and eventually cellphones. Now, running a startup with his son, the Huntington Beach inventor wants to latch sophisticated motion sensors onto surfboards, skateboards, snowboards and regular clothing. Data collected by Lokshin's sensors could separate pros from posers in sports that typically emphasize imprecise metrics such as style points.

Several guns and other equipment were stolen from a California Highway Patrol vehicle this week, officials confirmed Wednesday. The weapons were stolen while CHP officers conducted a training exercise Monday afternoon at Stevenson Ranch in Santa Clarita, said CHP spokesman Saul Gomez. The thief or thieves made off with two AR-15 semiautomatic rifles, two shotguns and two Smith & Wesson .40 caliber handguns, the Santa Clarita Valley News reported. A bulletproof vest, handcuff keys and an officer's ID badge were also taken.

Inside the North Hollywood prop house History for Hire, a technician clamps down a sheet of pearl finish plastic and cuts a strip to fasten around the wooden hoop of a Slingerland bass drum. Another worker is busy rebuilding a black Ludwig drum to precisely match the same set - right down to the manufacturer's keystone logo - used by the Four Seasons during a 1966 performance on the Ed Sullivan show. FOR THE RECORD: History for Hire: An article in the Aug. 28 Business section about North Hollywood prop house History for Hire included a photo caption that made a reference to the testing of Marshall amplifiers.

LONDON -- European nations agreed Wednesday to suspend the export of any equipment to Egypt that its security forces could use to suppress opposition to the military-backed government, but they will continue to provide economic aid to the turmoil-ridden Arab nation. “We do believe that the recent operations of the security forces have been disproportionate,” said Cathy Ashton, the top diplomat of the European Union. But she called Egypt “a crucial partner” whose people deserved continued economic assistance, especially the “most vulnerable” residents and those trying to build civil society.

SEATTLE - On a narrow central Idaho highway coursing through thickets of ponderosa pines and along a winding river, members of the Nez Perce tribe made their stand. Hundreds gathered along U.S. Highway 12 on Monday and Tuesday and formed a human blockade in an attempt to stop a controversial megaload of equipment bound for the oil tar sands of Alberta, Canada - a load reportedly weighing about 644,000 pounds and stretching over 200 feet. They intended on continuing their protests Wednesday and Thursday nights.